Top 10 richest countries of the world

by Roman on May 23, 2008

Here is a top 10 list of worlds richest countries according to CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia measured by GDP per capita. For those in the dark – GDP or Gross Domestic Product – is the value of all the goods that a country produces. GDP per capita stands for the value an average person produces.

This cheese making country is considered to be one of the most neutral countries in the world. During World War 2, people from other European countries deposited their money in the banks of Switzerland, knowing that their money would be safer there than in their home countries. Some well known Swiss companies include Nestle, Logitech, Rolex and Credit Suisse.

The Republic of Equatorial Guinea is a country in Central Africa. Most people have never heard of it. This country flew into stardom after 1996 when large oil reserves were found in the nation of only 0,5 million people. While being one of the largest producers of oil in Africa, little has been made to improve the living conditions of the people. Corruption is widespread and ordinary people are mostly living in poverty. The gap between rich and poor is probably the largest in the world.

This member of European Union has been often admired as one of the most modern knowledge economies in the world. Ireland is the largest maker of computer software in the world. A study done by The Economist ranked the Celtic Tiger to have the best quality of life in the world.

What sets the US apart from most other countries in this list is its size. While most other countries in this list are among the smallest in the world the US has a population of over 300 million and a total land area of 3,79 million square miles (9.83 million sq km). The US is also home to the largest amount of billionaires in the world. It is speculated that as many billionaires live in the US as in the rest of the world.

This tiny country consists of 63 island and some mainland with a total area of only 270 square miles (704 sq km). With Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan it is considered one of the Four Asian Tigers. Singapore has the busiest port in the world and is the 4th largest foreign exchange trading center in the world. Singapore is widely believed to be the most business-friendly economy in the world.

Luxembourg is number one because of international banking business that made them number one on the list. Most of the rich people have using international banks in Luxembourg and Switzerland. As you can see Switzerland is number 10 on the list.

one of the main things i noticed about europe is how expensive it is there, especially the european countries mentioned in this list. even if you make $50 000 a year, it will feel a lot less than if you had $50 000 a year in usa. things are a lot cheaper. and while europeans will probably spend all $50k they make, americans will probably spend $40k for the same exact stuff they buy in that years time.

Hi!
The salary of course depends on what you do!
If you are an IT professional you will make a lot more money than as a cleaner
In USA a professional worker in most office jobs can make between 40 000 to 100 000 dollars a year.
In the US however they sometimes won’t give you a single day for vacation (although 2 weeks is the norm). The salary of a person living in England can be a bit higher – and at the same time you don’t have to pay for your medical costs and insurance and you get 1 month of vacation every year!
So I would go for England (or Canada) – but I guess it pretty much depends on where you get a good job!

usa would be a good choice countrie for a high salary but not for easy accsess in americans people do not favor having immigrants in the countrie ( because we live next to mexico and get so many immigrants ) we also have good quality life here and the largest % of millionares in the world you could be the next one for all i know.

Well I have never been to Canada myself but I have visited the Niagara Falls which is right on the border of US and Canada!

In my opinion Canada is a great country – their laws are in many ways better than the one’s in the US.
A Canadian gets free access to the public health system but at the same time get paid almost the same as in the US.
Compared to the US Canada is a peaceful country as well – they are not in war with anybody!

I hope you realize that the reason Canada is not at war with anybody is because of their big brother, the USA, which basically would back up Canada in any war. They don’t even have or need a substantial military and they haven’t saved the world’s ass in two world wars either which, by the way, my relatives have served in. I’d like to see the world right now if the USA would have sat back and let the Nazis and the Japs take over the rest of the world. I’m not a fan of the currrent situation in the middle east or of George Bush’s hawkish politics, but it makes me angry to see people USA bashing all over the place. And some assholes did fly a couple planes into our buildings, but that stills doesn’t give us Carte Blanche to invade Iraq but give credit where credit is due and thank god for the USA because we’re the reason that some Nazis / Jap didn’t fuck your mother and kill your brother. You’d all be slaves to the German Empire which have put a bullet in your head for any indiscretions.

Buddy, I absolutely respect the fact that you’re not one of those half-blind Americans beating their chest saying everything America does is awesome. But, at the risk of sounding like a douche here, I am a bit of a history nut. And I have to correct a few things I’m hearing here. I’m from Norway – and I’ve got nothing against Americans in general, however I’m not too fond of what the Bush government did either.

The United States were reluctant to join the war and ‘save Europe’. That’s both great, and not so great. Fact of the matter is the cabinet during WWII knew that war sucked. It sucked big time. And coming out from a huge economic recession, war just didn’t seem like a good option. Plus, they were reluctant to meddle in what they reffered to as ‘European conflicts’. If it weren’t for the fact that Japan ATTACKED Pearl Harbour, the US would most likely never have entered the war. In fact, even after Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, the United States did NOT declare war on Germany too. Three whole days went by, then Germany declared war on the US in hopes of getting support in a far eastern theatre against the Soviets – in effect to make the soviets fight on two fronts!

I’ve got NOTHING but respect for the US soldiers who signed up and fought in Europe though, and I’m extremely grateful for what they did. I just want to make that very clear before I bring up a kind of… harsh statistic.

Do you know how many lives the United States, France, the United Kingdom and other democratic allies (Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Poland etc.) lost combined?
Please check out this chart, which is a moderate estimate of how many lost their lives. Even though the US contributed a whole lot, they wouldn’t have stood a chance against the brute force of Hitler if it weren’t for the Soviets. Even though I despise Stalin (actually, more so than Hitler), his politics and his branch of communism, we can’t turn a blind eye to the immense losses inflicted to the Soviet Union. Here’s a link: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/World_War_II_Casualties.svg

Hey Roman,
After i saw all this ranking of all the rich countires i feel like to move to Denmark. But i like CANADA a lot since its easy to move but can u share me one this how is canada in terms of JOB Opportunities, Health, security etc..

Read my comment above!
When it comes to job opportunities I feel that the safest bet would be to find a company that wants to employ you before going to Canada. Finding a job can be something that takes 6 months and you still need living money during that time!

INTRODUCTION:
i am suresh. i am studying MCA SECOND YEAR . i am living in india
REASON:
last month Sweden’s Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy Tobias Billstrom came to india

he said ” Sweden currently faces a shortage of doctors, nurses, engineers, electricians, IT technicians and welders.Once the new rules are enforced, an employer who is not able to meet labour needs through recruitment in Sweden or in the European Union will be able to recruit labour from any other country. Decisions regarding residence and work permits will be based on employers’ own assessment of the needs. ”

PURPOSE:
i am living with my father,mother and my brother’
father occupation:daily wages.
brother occupation:electricians.
i am fully depands my brothers income only because my father are very older.

The rules in all the European Union countries are different. So you need to take a country and research it individually. There is a law however that says that if you are a citizen of a country in the EU, you can work and live in any country you like – this law however is not a law yet in all the countries and it is estimated that it will be passed in all the countries in 2013.
If this happens then you can take a citizenship of whatever country you like in the EU and afterward work in all European countries.

Right now the law’s are very strict and if you want a work permit you will at first need to find a job and then your future work place needs to write a statement saying that they were unable to find a specialist like you from their own country.

I NOE PHILIPPINES MIGHT NOT B THE RICHEST COUNTRIE, BUT IT IS THE BEST COUNTRIE 2 LIVE IN. NO BODY IS RICH OR POOR IN THE PHILIPPINES, WHAT IM TRYING 2 SAY THAT THERE, YOU CAN HAVE A BETTER LIFE, AND ITS EASY 2 LIVE THERE AND YOU WONT HAVE 2 WORRY ABOUT MONEY.PHILIPPINES IS A VERY GOOD ROLE MODEL 2 ALL COUNTRIES, THEY BASICALLY HAVE THE NICEST PPL THERE.

I have never been to the Philippines – but I am willing to take your word on the fact that it is very good to live over there!
I am looking forward to the day that I will eventually visit your country!

When it comes do the list on this page – “Top 10 richest countries in the world” – then Philippines is not one of them because its GDP divided by the number of people in the country is not enough to make it to top 10. In fact Philippines is the 131-st richest country – so in reality its actually quite poor when you compare it to most countries in the world.

On the other hand I am not saying that life in rich countries is always better. As far as I know Philippines might be the best place to live in the world!

Hello Roman,
I really appreciate you (forget what other say about this list.) Because whatever reports world bank or other organizations publish are just games of figures and numbers and nothing else.
We can say this is a thearotical list and it doesn’t reflect the fact. Some entries may be confusing such as Equatorial Guinea. Be it anything it is not a way to calculate the wealthiness of any country. We should see that country by our own eyes then only we can make some conclusion.
We should also consider the social factors. Such as standerd of living.
thank you

Mr Tejas, I think i know why u r concerned about Equatorial Guinea, cause its in Africa that’s why u don’t wanna believe that its rich, 4give me if am wrong…by the way am not African, am Norwegian, but i have worked in several African countries the past 2 years for the UNESCO, and some countries r really developed,(not very developed, but in comparison to how they are being portrayed on the TV), if you’ve been to several countries in Africa u would probably agree with me, because all we see on TV is war n aids..I use to think the same about Africa b4, according to what i saw on TV, ..Guinea might not be on # 9 richest..But try to think both ways

OK, Mr Silo Guinea may be a rich country. But if you look at the human developement index guinea is nowhere. IF Some people in the country are Rich then it doesn’t mean that overall country is rich.
Some countries in Africa are really rich but there are lot of other factors that should be concerned.
check out this listhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index

well i have been looking along other sites and the statistics show that actully luxembourg (europe)is the richest country,i cant be sure but is that particuly true?:O
plz reply!
and dosnt the uk come on the list mate?

Don’t worry Jess this list is based on Per Capita Income Which doesn’t reflect the real fact. There are lot of other factors that should be considered check out this linkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_countries
here you will found list of all countries on all economical and social factors.

HEY HEY HEY HEY MAD WHERE IS INDIA? RICH OR POOR DECIDED YOU ? YOUR GOD? WE ARE NOT LIVING ON EARTH.WHAT IS RICH WHAT IS POOR.YOU ARE LIST TOP RICHEST COUNTRIES OK THAT FINE.IF SAY THAT COUNTRY RICH THAT COUNTRY WILL BE RICH YOUR GREAT GOD.JUST YOU TYPING ON COMPUTER AND SHOWED TOP TEN RICH COUNTRIES. RICH OR POOR NOT IMPORTANT PEACEFUL IS IMPORTANT .

You’re such a great person! Your simple tips to your readers really make sense to them and have been very informative. This has prompted me to write you hoping to hear a valuable advice from you.

I’m from Asian country, a professional IT as a matter of fact I passed 2 certification exams from Microsoft (MCSE&MCSA) and 1 from Cisco. (CCNA). I’m planning to work hopefully to either of the top 10 riches countries in the world you mentioned above. My only concern is regarding my health, last 2006 I suffered minimal tuberculosis and I had undergone treatment. Everything is fine for me but there’s a scar left in my lungs. I’m wondering if how strict these countries when it comes to physical exam?

If you are cured and don’t have tuberculosis anymore – you will be fine! No one will make any restrictions to you working in these countries if you find yourself a job.
However – if you are contagious then it is absolutely sure that you will not get a work permit.
If you are cured – then there are no problems!

Hello Roman,
Thank you for puting this list on your blog. This is a good discussion going on here.
But I think you should publish yet another list of top 10 economies in the world on the basis of GDP.
I hope you will do it.
Thank you.

Hey u dumb old fuck American, using that type of language against a country’s culture depicts what type of culture u people r having. May be your country is in the list of rich countries, but if a list is presented on the top 10 or 20 notorious nations, your nation will be the first one.

This is actually a difficult question – there are a lot of poor countries that don’t keep any records or statistics so no one really knows.
However I intend to find it out and to make a post about this in my blog!

Hi Suresh!
In addition to this article there are over 100 articles on FinancialJesus.com, so it takes time to update everything!
This list is based on statistics from May 2008 and I am sure that I will get another list up for 2009 as well, but I’m sorry to say that it can take some months!
Before coming up with a new list I’d like to wait a few months and see what happens with the world’s richest countries in the current financial crisis.

I am glad that you keep checking my website Suresh- however if you wish to get the latest information you should probably check out the website of the world bank or IMF! Also if you wish – you can write a post about the richest countries in 2009 yourself and I am more than happy to post it here!

India is a nation of very old culture and history and it is one nation that was and is rich and had the power to rule the world. the mystic that surrounds india is large and nobody other than india could understand and tell you what it stood for in medicine culture education economy. We had developed the atomic weapons in the time of the sages who called it the bramhaastra the universal weapon. And why our religions and culture still stand while others perished was that indians believed in god. Nobody could understand that even the afghanistan today is also part of old india. A lot of saints stopped the people from being greedy and be self satisfied that too may be the reason why india in old and medieval times did not become mad for money as other

USA is the most corrupt nation tn the world everyone knows that no need to further clarify. Recession in economy has happened because of america. No one else to blame. i am an american myself but i know what is the internal politics goin on. America is because of the other nations of the world especially the asians who you are blaming. tHEY ARE INFACT MAKING OUR COUNTRY MORE STRONG ECONOMICALLY. sO DONT BULLSHIT ass—-

This is actually very true on my point of view i think that the middle east countries are getting stronger because of their resources, USA is in a recession they are in debt and OBAMA is trying his best to do what he can.

How is the USA in debt? The size our our national debt compared to our annual GDP is not out of control. Would you be concerned about Bill Gates if he took out a 10 million dollar (USD) loan….probably wouldn’t be too worried…..besides that if anyone has ever taken corporate finance you would realize that it is actually beneficial to carry a certain amount of debt on you balance sheet. It allows you to grow faster than companies that do not leverage up at all. No risks equals no reward.

On another subject, I have traveled the world and been to about 40 coutries (Asia, Africa, and Europe) on both business and pleasure and I like to go to other countries to experience other cultures but at the end of the day going to these countries makes me realize how good I have it in the USA. Being born and raised here I have been given every oppotunity ( and I ‘ve blown a few) to do anything I put my mind to. That’s America. We’re far from perfect but we’re still awesome especially if you’re willing to get an education and work hard. By the way, I’m Shanghai right now and it’s a little too polluted and there are too many prostitutes but other that that it’s pretty nice and the food is great.

And to the people on here ranting about India being so great….the culture may have a lot of history and depth but when you’re there walking down the street and you step in human crap…..you tend to forget about the richness of the culture. On top of that, all my Indian friends that have immigrated to the USA and have good professional jobs here agree that it’s nice in some places and if you have money, but other than that it’s a dump.

And one more note: It’s because of the influence wielded economically, culturally and politically by Britain and the US that we’re all having this conversation in English right now.

I just wanted to say that the fact that makes me the most proud of my country is not at all that it is number 1 on this list. It is the fact that it has the lowest poverty rate of all European counties. That, in addition to the fact that we have almost 40% foreigners living here, but no nationalist party or racist violence, shows that we have managed to build a healthy society.

The weather’s really crappy though…

And, by the way: The picture on top of the list shows the “Palais du Luxembourg” (Palace of Luxembourg), which is located in … Paris! Maybe you could put in a picture of Luxembourg-City, it’s a beautiful 1000 year old Unesco world heritage fortress.

Hi,
I like your contributions so much,you make sense and rationality….what do you think about living and working in Ireland…what do you think about their current state of economy…want to relocate their but need more info

Hi, I am actually from Luxembourg too. And I have travelled a lot. And I may confirm you that an average Busdriver earns 50.000 Euros a year without problems. Salaries are really very very high. And to live in Luxembourg city, which has only 80.000 Inhabitants is extremely expensive, even more expensive than to live in Paris and london-city.
So I am not really proud of my country to be at the head of the list, because I am convinced that most of the banks here in Luxembourg, which haven’t suffered a lot about the Financial crisis, do not hesitate to deal with criminals, money laundring. But one thing is sure, Luxembourgers are reach because they are smart and forget their conscience.

What a nonsense. America has surely more billionairs than Luxembourg but only because it has 200 millions an more inhabitants. Luxembourg has only 480.00O and already some billionairs like Mittal living there. Compared to the size of the population we have surely more than you do.
There is no place in the world where so many ferraris, lamborghinis are seen on supermarket lots than here.

I think the UAE is the rishest country in the world, and the people (citizens) who live there are the rishest, for example, abu dhabi itself has more than 800 billion dollars in its account, waiting for someone to invest it somewhere, so what about the other cities like dubai and rak and sharjah and so on, and i can understand why they are showing it as number 5 since they have so many labours who came from different countries and who are building the country in these days. what impostant is that these workers are not gitting as much as the professional workers. UAE has 3 millions temporary unprofessional labours and 800000 citizens, so when these temporary workers finish building and comeback to their countries, i think uae is gonna be the rishest country on all sites lol.

This list is stupid considering that the US has 300 million people and Luxembourg has 500 thousand people. Also in overall wealth the US is 1st with over 14 trillion dollars and Luembourg is 97th with just over 38 billion dollars, I believe the US’s Warren Buffet and Bill Gates both have a larger fortune then that, upwards of 60 billion dollars. By the way what the hell is Qatar. Oh yah, most of these countries that are rich because of oil can thank the great country of the United States of America for that.
Here are some stats for ya:

Overall your list would be correct but as you point out in your article – the US has more than 300 million people while Luxembourg only has 0.5 million.
In order to get how many money each country has per person you would need to divide the amounts you have with the number of people living in these countries.
The way you represent stats is nice but it really doesn’t say anything.

You just don’t get it. It’s easier for a country with a smaller amount of people to have a larger GDP per capita than a larger country. It would be like if i started my own country and had $100,000, then would my country would be the richest country. But I do see where you are coming from in your reply. Oh yah, read back the second sentence of your reply and see if it makes sense to you.

Hello friends,
I can’t understand why a lot of comments are so serious about any country. I find it very silly when someone hail his own country and say that “my country is richest”.
This published list is just a game of numbers. If you really want to find out richest country. The only solution is go there on your own, live there at least for 1 year and travel all over the possible places. And then come and make any comment. Every country has it’s own good and bad things. We can’t compare each and every factor. There are lot of limitations.
And we can’t compare all countries in same point of view.
And for me. I am from India. and i am not going to say that “India is richest country in the world”.
It would be ridiculas.
And please don’t make comments imotionaly. Control your love for your country.

Hi people, Lots of information on this page thanks to all of you. It is not the fight between nationalities as respected Jesus says that US is richest because of the money it generates, may be what u say is the way you see the picture but in reality its all about how much bread and butter u can get with your money…
Let me explain with an example of 2 families; A and B. Family A who has 4 member earns $100 a month on the other side family B who has 2 member earns $80 now the if we divide 100/4 which means members of family A will get only $25 each and the member of family B will get $40 to spend, I guess its clear who has more money.
Its not about the total money earned by the country but its about the per capita income…..